Barista ☕️

The Cozy macOS Status Bar.

Barista is a curated configuration for SketchyBar that balances aesthetics with power-user features. It is designed to be shared, easy to install, and configurable for different environments (Work vs. Home).

Features

• Dynamic Island: Context-aware popups for volume, brightness, and music.
• Profiles: Switch between "Work", "Personal", and "Cozy" modes instantly.
• Modular Architecture: Lua-based configuration system decomposed for high performance and testability.
• Integrations: Optional support for Yabai (tiling), Skhd (hotkeys), Journal (org-mode capture/inbox), NERV (transfer queue + host monitoring), and Halext-org (task dashboard). Integrations are toggled per profile.

Quick Install

To install Barista and its dependencies:

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/scawful/barista.git ~/.local/share/barista

# Run the installer
~/.local/share/barista/scripts/install.sh

The installer will guide you through:

1. Installing dependencies (SketchyBar, Lua, Fonts).
2. Choosing a Profile (see below).
3. Configuring Yabai/Skhd (optional).

Profiles

Profile	Description	Yabai	Vibe
Minimal	Clean, distraction-free. Good for new users.	Optional	⚪️ Clean
Girlfriend	Warm colors, larger text, simplified metrics. No scary tiling.	Disabled	🧸 Cozy
Work	High info density, meeting indicators, calendar integration.	Required	💼 Pro
Personal	The default dev setup. Code, media, and tiling.	Required	⚡️ Fast

Window Management (Yabai)

Barista includes optimized configurations for Yabai (window manager) and Skhd (hotkeys). The installer can automatically set these up for you.

• Enable: Run installer and select "Window Manager Mode: Required".
• Disable: Run ./scripts/set_mode.sh <profile> disabled.

Source universe: runtime and overlay

Recommended: Make the SketchyBar runtime a symlink to the Barista repo so edits are live:

# If ~/.config/sketchybar already exists, back it up first
mv ~/.config/sketchybar ~/.config/sketchybar.bak
ln -s ~/src/lab/barista ~/.config/sketchybar

Personal overlay: For per-machine additions (e.g. Oracle of Secrets integration, workflow shortcuts), use the overlay in ~/src/config/dotfiles/sketchybar-overlay/. Apply it with: ~/src/config/dotfiles/scripts/apply_sketchybar_overlay.sh Optionally pass the target dir (default: ~/.config/sketchybar). If the runtime is a symlink to lab/barista, the overlay is written into the repo. See config/dotfiles/sketchybar-overlay/README.md.

Skhd and yabai_control: Space/layout keybindings in skhd call yabai_control.sh. To support both "Barista deploy" and "dotfiles-only" setups, use the wrapper: ~/.local/bin/yabai_control_wrapper.sh (from config/dotfiles/bin/yabai_control_wrapper.sh). Ensure that wrapper is on your PATH and installed (e.g. dotfiles link bin/ to ~/.local/bin).

LaunchAgents: The single place to edit the Barista orchestrator (SketchyBar + yabai + skhd at login) is lab/barista/launch_agents/. See launch_agents/README.md. Recommended: use either this LaunchAgent or brew services for the three daemons, not both.

Customization

Switching Profiles

# Switch to Cozy mode
./scripts/set_mode.sh girlfriend disabled

# Switch to Work mode
./scripts/set_mode.sh work required

Configuration

Edit ~/.config/sketchybar/state.json to toggle widgets and appearance, or use barista_config.lua for overrides that survive the GUI. See docs/guides/CUSTOMIZATION.md for state.json, profiles, themes, and fonts; docs/architecture/SKETCHYBAR_LAYOUT.md for which file defines each bar item. To validate theme files: lua scripts/validate_theme.lua [theme_name].

{
  "profile": "minimal",
  "widgets": {
    "battery": true,
    "wifi": false
  }
}

Work Google Apps Menu

Populate customizable Work Google app entries in the Apple menu:

# Use defaults
./scripts/configure_work_google_apps.sh --replace

# Use workspace domain routes
./scripts/configure_work_google_apps.sh --domain yourcompany.com --replace

# Use custom app list
./scripts/configure_work_google_apps.sh --from-file ./data/work_google_apps.example.json --replace

Fonts + Alternate Panel

Install missing fonts, repair state.json to match available families, and set a preferred alternate control panel mode:

./scripts/install_missing_fonts_and_panel.sh --yes --panel-mode tui

For managed/work Macs that should avoid compiled helpers entirely:

./scripts/setup_machine.sh --yes --panel-mode tui --runtime-backend lua
./scripts/barista-debug.sh --lua-only --reload

See docs/guides/WORK_MACHINE_GEMINI.md for the Gemini-first upgrade flow.

Update Another Mac

Push the latest repo changes to a remote Mac and apply work profile extras:

./scripts/update_work_mac.sh \
  --host user@work-mac.local \
  --target origin/main \
  --work-domain yourcompany.com \
  --panel-mode tui \
  --runtime-backend lua

• Hover animation: In state.json or in modules/state.lua defaults, hover_animation_duration (default 8) and hover_animation_curve (default sin) control popup hover speed. Lower duration (e.g. 6) for even snappier feel.
• Process Batching: Barista minimizes process forks. Space switching uses a batched diff-update path (40+ forks reduced to 1). C helpers like system_info_widget batch multiple updates into a single call.
• Direct Execution: Hot-path C helpers use execlp() instead of system() to eliminate shell overhead and unnecessary forks.
• Modular Load: Configuration logic is split across focused modules (shell_utils, paths, binary_resolver) to ensure fast initialization.
• Tuning: See docs/PERFORMANCE_AUDIT.md for a stability/performance checklist and detailed audit results.

Testing

Barista includes a comprehensive test suite of 94+ tests across its Lua modules.

./scripts/barista-verify.sh          # Full smoke test (binaries, shell, lua)
lua tests/run_tests.lua              # Run Lua unit tests only
./scripts/rebuild.sh --verify       # Rebuild all and run tests

Troubleshooting

• Bar not showing? Run sketchybar --reload.
• Icons missing? Run ./scripts/barista-fonts.sh --apply-state --report and re-run ./scripts/barista-doctor.sh --fix.
• Need to debug without C/C++ helpers? Run ./scripts/barista-debug.sh --lua-only --reload.
• Yabai acting weird? Check System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility.

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Maintained by Scawful. Part of the Halext ecosystem.